Lazy Town Storms
by sarahjanepOp
Summary: Stephanie is about to finish High School and during a vicious Storm, all of her friends including Sportacus take cover in her home. during the night, her best friends find out something very shocking about her.


Lazy Town was starting to receive the worst start to the summer, several storms have hit and each one was worse than the last. The sky would grow an angry black and green and lightning would shoot from the sky as the thunder roared and echoed through the clouds. The storms grew so ruthless that Sportacus had to park his ship to keep it from swaying to and fro in the wind. Stephanie invited everyone to her house to wait out the storm.

It looked like it would be the biggest they had ever had and she wanted everyone to stay in one place to stay safe. It wasn't good to be alone in such hideous weather. All the other kids came and Miss Busybody was out of town to visit family in New York and she dragged Milford with her. Stephanie was anxiously waiting for Sportacus, he was the only one that hadn't arrived yet. The door bell rang and Stephanie rushed to open the door.

"Hey Stephanie," Sportacus' smiling face appeared in the doorway. "I'm here." Stephanie let him in eagerly and all the other kids welcomed him into the house.

Stephanie was seventeen now, her friends were oblivious to her maturity and her fancy toward Sportacus. They still acted like children around him and Stephanie wanted so much to prove to him that she was different. She just hoped that Sportacus looked at her as a woman and not as a little girl anymore.

"I'm sorry to coop you up in the house all night Sportacus. I know that you hate sitting still." Stephanie said sitting on the couch with the rest of the kids. Sportacus sat on the floor in front of the couch to face all the kids, "That is okay, we can still have fun. It was nice for you to invite me over since my ship isn't in good shape to fly in this weather."

"Not a problem. Besides, I don't like to be alone in bad weather like this."

"I remember when I was small like you." Ugh! There it was, Sportacus still thought of her as a child. "I used to be afraid of storms. But my family and I would play games to pass the time."

"Like what?" Ziggy asked. Stephanie rolled her eyes. She loved her friends but they still acted so childish sometimes.

"Hide and seek, tag, sardines. Anything really." Sportacus looked quite content sitting on the floor talking to the kids, that was one thing that Stephanie loved about him. He preferred to be in the company of children than anyone else. She loved it that she spent so much time with him when she was younger but now…she wanted him to herself.

"Can we play hide and seek? Huh? Can we?" Ziggy asked bouncing up and down from his sugar rush. Sportacus looked at Stephanie, "Sure go ahead." she said. Sportacus covered his eyes and counted, all the others hid but Stephanie stayed put.

"Ready or not here I come!" he called. He opened his eyes to see Stephanie still sitting on the couch, looking bored out of her mind. "Stephanie? Why aren't you hiding?" he asked a little confused that Stephanie would refuse her favorite game.

"I just don't feel like it right now." she said resting her hand under her chin. Sportacus sensed there was something wrong but the kids were calling him to find them. So he ran down the hallway to find all of the kids. Stephanie's eyes stung ready to shed tears but she swallowed hard and held them back. How would she be able to tell Sportacus that she loved him?

All of the kids came back into the living room and started to play another game. Stephanie made an excuse to leave the room and rushed to her bedroom. Sportacus didn't like that she was excluding herself from the games and set off to find her. She heard a knock on her door, "Stephanie? Are you in there?" It was Sportacus. Stephanie didn't want him to see her cry so she quickly hid in her closet and made no sound as he came in.

She could see him through the crack of the closet door, he looked disappointed and puzzled at Stephanie's behavior. He just wanted her to be included, "Stephanie? Are you here? I hope you're not mad at me for some reason." he said looking around for her. He looked under her bed and in her toy chest which was now storage for her shoes. As he approached the closet, everything went black.

"Is everyone alright?" Sportacus sped out of the room to check on the others. "The electricity went out, we need to stay in one room." Sportacus led everyone in Stephanie's room and closed the door. "Has anyone seen Stephanie?" he asked.

"No, she said she had to go to the bathroom when she left." Ziggy said shivering with fear. All of the kids huddled together, Sportacus opened the closet door and a flash of lightning revealed her face to him.

"Stephanie, you had me worried sick." He helped her out of the closet and led her back to the huddled circle with her friends. Sportacus pulled Stephanie close thinking she was hiding from the storm instead of him, "Don't be afraid everyone…I know what we can play. How about we go around the circle and say something we don't know about each other."

"But you already know us Sportacus." Trixie said to him gripping onto Stingy's arm.

"There must be something we don't know about each other." he said. He could feel Stephanie shivering up against him and he gave her a hug to comfort her. It wasn't the fear of the storm that had her shuddering, it was the fact that she was so close to him and that she was actually playing this game.

"I'll go first. I am from a small village in Iceland and people in this country believe in elves."

He could hear trixie laugh, "Why would they believe in such nonsense!" She laughed and all the others joined in. Sportacus took off his hat and the lightning shown off his pointed ears and everyone gasped, "I am an elf." he said as the thunder rolled. Stephanie sat up to see his ears in the light of the window, they really were pointed. She reached to touch them to see if they were real and she felt Sportacus tense up. "Why didn't you tell us you were an elf? that's too cool of a secret to keep!" Pixel said.

"I didn't want anyone making fun of me. I didn't know what you would think." Sportacus cringed and laughed a little as Stephanie touched his ear again…ticklish?

"It's your turn Trixie." he said as he took Stephanie's hand in his to keep her from caressing his ears. Trixie thought a moment, "Okay, Stingy and I are dating. We have been for a few months but we didn't want anyone to know."

"Aw Trixie that is so sweet. Why didn't you tell all of us." Sportacus asked the young couple.

"We just wanted to keep it private, we were waiting for the right time to tell you all." Stingy spoke up.

"Pixel, what about you?" Sportacus turned to the tech nerd of the group who was trying to fix one of his gadgets.

"I…I've been accepted into a very sophisticated tech school Junior year, After graduation will be the last summer with you guys." Sportacus could see that Pixel was quite relieved to reveal such a thing to his good friends, "I'm proud of you Pixel. Just be sure to drop by and see us once in a while."

"I will, plus I wont be leaving until next year so…I still have one last hoorah with you all."

Sportacus turned to Ziggy and lifted his cape which he had hid his face, "What about you Ziggy?"

"I'm going to camp this summer, my mom wont let me stay here. She says that it's a camp to help me lose weight…I don't know why I cant do it here with my friends. I'll be all alone around strange people."

Sportacus smiled a little, "You can always make new friends and keep the old ones. Don't ever be afraid to make new friends. Just don't forget us." he said patting Ziggy on the shoulder. It was Stephanie's turn, she didn't want to tell him that she loved him in front of everyone, she was terrified of what he might say. His opinion meant so much to her all of her life.

Sportacus looked at her and could see the fear in her eyes, he knew it wasn't the storm anymore. She was hiding something deep and secretive, "What's wrong Stephanie? Are you okay?" he asked clasping her arms so he could look in her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes again, "I'm-" she was interrupted by the lights coming back on and everyone cheered.

Stephanie sat frozen in despair as she witnessed everyone, including Sportacus leave the room to celebrate. Was she ever going to be able to tell him? They all played well into the night and silence fell as all the kids fell asleep one by one. Sportacus made sure that all the kids were covered and comfortable and decided to check on Stephanie one last time. He peered into the open doorway and saw no one. He walked in a little further to see that she was hiding in the closet again, "It's much more comfortable in bed Stephanie." he said trying to get her to smile.

"I don't want to go to bed…I'm not tired." she said with her hands bringing her knees to her chin. Sportacus had enough, he wanted to know why his best friend was so sad. He walked into the closet and sat next to her, "Alright, what is going on? You have been so down ever since I came here. What is wrong?"

Stephanie couldn't bring herself to say anything, she barely said anything when it was her turn to share, "I'm…"

"Yes?" Sportacus didn't like to see her like this. It made him upset that she was so depressed, "Please tell me. I wont tell anyone else, I promise." he ran a hand through her pink hair that had grown out into thick curly locks.

"I'm in love with someone." she could feel the heat rushing to her face as she blushed. Sportacus chuckled a little and put an arm around her, "That isn't anything to be sad about. Being in love should make you happy."

"Not if the person you love is oblivious to it." Stephanie wiped away a tear that escaped from her eye. Sportacus didn't know what to say. Someone hurt his little Stephanie and he wanted so much to know who it was, "Who is this person you have fallen in love with?" he asked. Stephanie scoffed and ran away before he could see her really lose it. "Stephanie!" he ran after her and she opened the door to escape. Sportacus caught her by the hand, "Why are you running away from me?"

"I'm afraid of what you will say." Stephanie said through the pitter patter of the rain. Sportacus joined her outside, "Tell me who it is Stephanie. I cant help you if you keep it from me."

"I'm in love with you Sportacus." she said. He was at a loss for words. Here was his best friend confessing her love for him and he was too blind to even see it coming.

"Why was it so hard for you to tell me that?"

"I didn't want you to think of me as the little Stephanie you knew a long time ago." Stephanie cried. "I didn't want you to think it was just a little girl crush. I'm a woman now…And I find myself looking out the window sometimes staring at your ship, wondering if you're okay up there. Sometimes I want to cry out for help so you could just be with me. Sometimes I-"

Stephanie's lips were hushed as Sportacus kissed her, "I'm so glad to hear those things from you dear." he kissed her again, "I've noticed you have become a woman, and it drove me crazy. I couldn't think of you as just a little kid anymore. You started to infiltrate my thoughts."

Sportacus backed her up against the door and kissed her, the door opened and he caught her before she could fall back, "I knew it!" Trixie shouted. All the others came to see the incident and when they seen Stephanie held in Sportacus' arms, they couldn't help but cheer. Stephanie smiled and looked at his face which was smiling in triumph. She laughed and pulled his hat over his eyes and the door closed so no one could see. She kissed him again and stayed in his strong arms until the sun rose.

THE END.


End file.
